


The Butterfly and the Caterpillar

by Anastasia_Purple



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Aaravos Cult, Abuse, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Angst, Child Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Drugs, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Past Drug Use, Recreational Drug Use, Romance, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, Teen!Aaravos, Teen!Viren, aaravos and viren are so cute, aaravos is a cutie, aaravos lowkey a stalker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 20:54:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anastasia_Purple/pseuds/Anastasia_Purple
Summary: Viren moves to a new town with his father. Thrust into a new high school in the middle of his senior year wasn't preferable, but he supposed he would survive. Maybe. This Aaravos kid is sparking a curiosity in him that he hadn't realized he had. Plans are changing and weaving around Viren, and he doesn't know how it'll end.





	1. Katolis Academy

**Author's Note:**

> Tags are subject to change, cuz I have an idea of where the story is going, but not the exact details. But I know key points in the plot, and I've written pretty long stories based off of those alone, so I'll be fine :)

     Viren looked up at the school ahead of him. The entryway to the large brick building was framed by two bare trees that nearly towered the building themselves. Big, blocky letters overtop the large doorway worked together to spell "Katolis Academy." The seventeen-year-old sighed, his breath clouding up in the chilly January air. It was his senior year, and he was transferring in the middle of the year. Walking up the brief set of steps to enter the school, Viren shivered in the cold. He didn't have proper winter clothing yet. The best he had was a dark gray sweater with fuzz on the inside, but it wasn't really enough for the nearly freezing temperatures. He had just moved from somewhere with warmer temperatures, and he wasn't quite used to the cold yet, despite having moved in over a week ago.

     He pulled at one of the heavy door handles, wincing as his already cold fingers touched the even colder metal handle. The door swung open and Viren hurried inside, sighing in relief as the heated air warmed his bones. He flinched as the door clicked loudly behind him. There were a couple of students in the hall, but none looked up to even see him. Which was fine, understandable. It was the first day after winter break, no one wanted to be there. Taking a glance around, he easily spotted the school's main office to the right of him. Through the glass, he was able to see the secretary as she typed away at something on her laptop at her seemingly impossibly messy desk. She had darker skin and her white hair was fashioned into two long braids, vaguely reminding him of Anne of Green Gables. He remembered his mother would read him the novel every night before she passed. It was one of the only happy memories he could remember of her. Knocking before he entered the office, he entered, closing the door behind him softly. He was able to read her nameplate now. The newly dubbed Miss Mills looked up at him curiously.

     "Hello, how can I help you?" She asked jovially. Viren fidgeted for a second before answering.

     "Hello Miss Mills, my name is Viren Dalic and I just transferred here?" He said somewhat confidently but still managed to make the statement sound like a question. 

     "Ah, no need to be so formal! Call me Miss Lujanne, all the kiddos do!" She laughed lightly. Her soothing laugh relaxed Viren's nerves somewhat. You could tell a lot about a person from their laugh. Miss Lujanne stop laughing giving away to a smile, "I had almost forgotten that you were to arrive today! I have your schedule and map around here somewhere." She vaguely motioned towards the absolute mess that was her desk. Viren cracked a smile. She turned around in her chair, finger to her chin as she observed the piles of papers around her. She reached underneath a pile of papers, nearly topping it over as she pulled out two papers. Viren presumed these were his materials. As she turned back to Viren, she gave him a conspiratory wink.

     "It may appear to be messy, but in reality, I know exactly where everything is." Her teal eyes twinkled at Viren, and he had to smile. She glanced at one paper before handing it to him. "You're lucky, you got Mr. Xadia. He's one of the best we have here, he'll be sure to make you feel welcome. He should be in his classroom by now, you should go introduce yourself ahead of time." She gave him a smiled lightly before waving her hand at him to get a move on.

      "Bye Miss Lujanne." Viren left the office and began navigating the maze-like hallways of his new school. He noticed there were more students in the halls now, he could hear mumbled conversations and more enthusiastic ones. Staring intently at his map, he didn't bother to look up as he rounded what he believed to be the last corner, only to run into someone. Stumbling back, he peered up to see a tall, cocoa-colored teen looking down at him with an almost intrigued look upon his face. Long white hair reaching down the teen's back hidden by the purple t-shirt and black jeans he wore. Viren's eyes traveled up to the teen's face, a large smattering of freckles across his face and what looked like diamond-shaped birthmarks underneath his eyes. The inquisitive amber eyes caught Viren's own gray ones, and he was captivated for a brief moment. Realizing he was staring, he looked down sharply.

     "I'm sorry," Viren mumbled. He could feel heat rushing to his cheeks. He moved to walk away and regret this moment for the rest of his life, but a freckled hand rested upon his shoulder. Tensing, Viren stopped moving.

     "Tell me. What is your name?" The freckled teen asked in an impossibly deep voice. He would deny it later, but Viren shivered when he heard that melodious voice.

     "I-I my name is Viren. Viren Dalic." He stammered out, cheeks even hotter as he looked up again at this tall boy. Meeting each other's eyes once more, the other looked away first this time. Nodding, he let his hand rest upon Viren's shoulder for a moment longer before leaving without another world. Viren turned to watch the mysterious boy, with long flowing hair billowing behind him like the first snowfall of winter. That one moment felt like forever, and when the mystery boy turned out of sight back the way Viren had just come, he found himself missing him.


	2. Homeroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viren meets Mr. Thunder Xadia, Harrow, and this fangirl named Beth. He learns a bit about Mystery Boy™.

Viren stared after the mysterious boy for a moment longer, before shaking his head clear and looking at his map. It took him a minute to orient himself once more. He found his homeroom after a minute, an glanced inside. It was still pretty early, but there were a couple of students inside. Peeking in, he saw a student sitting cross legged in a table up front, eyes closed. He had long white hair braided back with some hanging loose. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be meditating, a serious look on his face. There were two students in the back row, using sign language to talk to one another. The boy had flaming red hair, with a large smattering of freckles across his young face. The girl had short hair, with a longer chunk framing one side of her face. As Viren stepped into the room, the door squeaked and the two of them looked at him with what he assumed was curiosity. He cringed a bit and made a little wave. The red-haired one waved back with a grin. The girl just stared at him, and he saw a scar underneath her eye. He locked eyes with her for just a moment, before looking away quickly. He turned to the teacher's desk and saw a large burly man with a mane of blue hair so pale it looked white sitting at it, absorbed in a book. _What is with people in this school and white hair?_ As Viren approached the desk, the head looked up revealing a kind face with glasses.

"Hi, my name is Viren Dalic, and I believe I am to be in your class?" He said as confidently as could muster, handing the schedule to the man. The man's cerulean eyes traced the schedule and smiled.

"Yup! We were expecting you!" Mr. Xadia smiled widely, his voice deep and jovial. He got up from his seat and placed his reading glasses on the desk as he stretched, betraying his true height. Mr. Xadia was _big_ in every sense of the word. His hand landed on Viren's shoulder, the same place where Mystery Boy **™** had placed it earlier beforehand. Viren tensed but kept looking straight forward as Mr. Xadia guided him to a seat to the left side of the classroom. "You'll be sitting here, your schedule is near identical to Harrow Katol’s so he'll be guiding you around today! He'll be sitting right in front of you!" Mr. Xadia was excited it seemed like. Viren wondered who this Harrow was. "Anyway, don't be a stranger! We've got good kids here, don't be afraid to talk to them," Mr. Xadia stated as he headed back to his desk. Viren set his stuff down and sat down stiffly. After a moment he fished a book out of his bag. As he got lost in the plot of his book, a story about two humans and an elf who go on a journey to save their world, he barely noticed when the room filled up around him, until a kid sat down in front of him.

“Hi! My name is Harrow.” The boy’s voice jolted Viren out of his immersion. He stopped reading and silently closed his book.

“My name’s Viren. It’s good to meet you.” Viren looked at Harrow. He wore a dark red long-sleeved shirt, and his dreadlocks were drawn up into a large bun. Harrow smiled at Viren, before glancing at his class schedule. After reading through it for a moment, he gave it back to Viren.

“It looks like we have most of our classes together, except for fourth and sixth. We have lunch during fourth so just follow the crowd for that. I don’t know if we’ll have the same lunch period, though.” His voice was kind as he kind and friendly as he talked about the teachers he knew and what you could pull off with each of them. As he moved on to the fifth period teacher, a girl with blond hair with pink highlights rushed up to Viren.

“You’re that kid who ran into Aaravos!” Viren leaned away from this girl and gave her a confused look.

“Uhhhh who?” Viren was genuinely perplexed. Aaravos was such a weird name, anyway.

“Beth what are you-” Harrow tried to pop in but the newly dubbed Beth thrust her phone ino Viren’s face. When he was able to focus on the image, it showed Mystery Boy **™** with his hand on Viren’s shoulder. The picture was clearly taken from the point of view of someone hiding behind a bathroom door. Viren vaguely noticed his cheeks heat up a little.

“Oh.” Was all he could say.

“All the girls are jealous. He never touches anyone! Especially not voluntarily! Sammy was walking out of the bathroom when she saw you run into him. Sammy knows everyone so she knew you were new! The Aaravos Cul- I mean club has a group chat so we all know already!” Viren could swear he saw stars inside those amber eyes. Harrow stood up between Viren and Beth, causing her to back up. She had been right up in Viren’s face. Viren’s heart rate started to slow down as Harrow’s calm voice spoke up.

“Beth, calm down. He didn’t even know who Aaravos was until just a moment ago when you shoved that photo of him into Viren’s face. We all know how you tend to get excited-” Beth’s face visibly fell for a second before perking up for a second, “So just calm down for a moment.”

“Alright,” She nodded and Viren let out a sigh of relief. She brought her phone up and snapped a picture of Viren before turning around and heading back to a group of girls in the corner which were, he realized with some concern, all wearing some form of purple.

Harrow sat back down in his seat with a tense look on his face. Viren smiled at him nevertheless.

“Thanks.” Viren really meant it, not a lot of people would have dealt with that situation with as much tact as Harrow did at his old school. Harrow gave him a grim smile.

“No problem. You want some real advice though? Stay away from Aaravos. He’s bad news.” Harrow’s voice wasn’t full of the joviality it had had just a few minutes earlier. Viren wiped the smile off his face an reluctantly nodded. Mystery Boy **™** , no- Aaravos, had been a little weird, and Harrow had just helped him out of a difficult situation. Harrow had also been in this school a lot longer than he had. Yeah, he would just have to avoid this Aaravos from now on. He was pretty good at that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I SWEAR IT'LL GET LONGER I'M JUST ENDING THESE CHAPTERS WHERE IT FEELS RIGHT. Tbh though, I'm gonna get started on chapter 3 during my college class lmfao. Anyway, kudos and comments are greatly appreciated! I'm prob not gonna wait till next Monday for chapter 3, so look forward to that!


	3. Chemistry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chemistry class. Duh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the description, and I like it lol. Also I'm a huge liar. Sorry bout that my dudes.

Viren and Harrow talked for a little while longer. About how Miss Lujanne would let nearly anything slide if there had been considerable effort to conceal it from prying eyes. How Harrow was dating a girl named Sarai Satou. How his family had donated so much money to the town, there were several places named after them such as the school, library, a diner, and the park. They were in the middle of discussing Harrow's attempts to create jelly tarts to satisfy Sarai's near-addiction when the bell rang. Viren stuffed his untouched book into his bag and followed Harrow through the maze of people, weaving in and out. He only got bumped around a few times, but he was fine, it had been a lot worse at his old school. He introduced himself to the second period teacher and got seated near the back. This continued on through the third period, they chatted in between classes. Viren was surprised how easy it was for him to get along with Harrow. Conversation topics came easily and they had similar interests.

Unfortunately, they had to part after third. Harrow pointed the way to Viren's fourth period, Chemistry with Mrs. Adler.

"It'd be impossible to get lost from here." Harrow had jokingly said. But Viren still somehow managed to get turned around. He cringed as the bell rang. Fishing the map out of his backpack, he found the classroom. His face was burning as he entered. A dark-skinned woman with frizzy hair turned to look at him with a smile. 

"Oh, you must be Viren! We were wondering where you were." She spoke quickly as her eyes darted around the class. Viren was deliberately looking away from those kids. She put a finger to her chin. "You can sit..." Her voice trailed off uncertainly.

"He can sit here." A painfully familiar and deep voice resounded from the back of the class. Viren turned to see Aaravos sitting in the back with is hand half-raised alone. No one else was in the row. Viren looked at Mrs. Adler, whose face had fallen for just a moment. Brightening up again she began to speak.

"Well, that works out well! Viren, why don't you go sit down next to Aaravos?" She said, pointing Aaravos out unnecessarily. He's the tallest in the class with his hand up. Viren moved to protest, remembering Harrow's earlier warning, but stopped himself. It would do him no good to make a scene. He headed to his new seat with reluctance. Aaravos was looking at him out of the corner of his eye with a curious smirk on his face. Viren stared at the board, his face burning. Mrs. Adler was teaching the class about balancing equations, something Viren already knew how to do, but he took notes nevertheless. Taking a glance around the class, he recognized a couple students. There was Bethi, who kept staring with wide open eyes. Shouldn't she be paying attention? There was the meditating dude from earlier in the front row. And the redhead from earlier, who was sitting a few seats in front of him. But that was it. Viren began zoning out. After about an hour, they were given a packet to complete in groups. That's when Aaravos spoke to Viren for the second time that day. 

"I don't suppose you could check my work? You seem to have a grasp of the subject." Aaravos gestured to the already halfway completed paper on Viren's desk. 

"Oh- uh. Sure." Viren stumbled over his words. Leaning over to get a better view of Aaravos' paper, he began checking it over with his own paper. Everything was perfect and neatly filled in. "It looks fine. Great even." He began to pull away, only to have an arm wrap around and push him into Aaravos' chest. His face was on  _fire_ and he knew that his face would be an absolutely bright red. But the arm stayed firm, not letting him move. 

"Don't move." Aaravos' deep voice stilled Viren's light struggling. Waiting a moment, he gave a little nod. At least he wasn't able to see the rest of the class. He had no idea if they were looking, and frankly, he didn't want to know.After what felt like forever, the arm released, and Viren sat up in his seat, looking at the desk, avoiding looking at anything or anyone else. To be completely honest, the few minutes of lying down had made him drowsy. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, with finishing unpacking and just general late night thoughts. He glanced up at the class, and when no one was looking, he relaxed. Bethi was smiling widely at him with a thumbs up and phone in her other hand. He had a sinking feeling she had taken a picture. He looked at Aaravos, who was smirking down at him. Viren's eyes widened and shot back to his paper. He scooted away a bit, trying to make it subtle. He prayed for the bell for lunch to ring soon.

He needed to hide in a bathroom or somewhere private for a bit. Yes. That's what he needs to do. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My new headcanon is that Viren has a horrible sense of direction.  
> Sorry for being late, got a bit overwhelmed with school then had a migraine for three days straight lmfao. Also, my brother is an arse. Just had to get that out of my system. I almost fell asleep finally getting this online but I felt like I put this off already too long. Well, I hope you enjoyed. Leave a kudo, comment, subscribe, etc. I'll update either Monday or when the next chapter is done.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to follow my Instagram TDP stan accounts, I wouldn't mind either :P @runaan_stan and @aavaros I try to post daily. Yes I know I spelled Aaravos wrong but tbh I'm too lazy to think of another handle.


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